Agriculture and Climate Change

Meridian Institute is a nonprofit NGO internationally recognized for convening and facilitating neutral and independent dialogues and assessments on complex and controversial issues . Since 2010 Meridian has convened informal dialogues, hosted workshops, facilitated expert reports, and interviewed donors funding agriculture and climate change. The objective of Meridian’s work has been to provide neutral facilitation and objective information and analysis to foster continued communication among governments and a wide range of stakeholders. Primary activities have included:

2011 Scoping Report: Meridian Institute convened and facilitated an international team of independent expert authors to develop an objective assessment report outlining key issues and policy options focusing on agriculture and climate change – in particular, issues that could be addressed in international discussions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

2011 Policy Brief: At the request of policy makers Meridian developed a 22 page policy brief summarizing the findings in the longer Agriculture and Climate Change: A Scoping Report.

Global Workshop | Learning from Experience and Early Interventions: Meridian convened a two day workshop in Rome that brought together practitioners, policy makers, donors, and researchers to share on-the-ground experience from climate-related agriculture initiatives. The workshop fostered exchange amongst different pilot projects and countries, encouraged and captured lessons learned, and led to the dissemination of information on how a diverse set of climate-related agriculture projects are organized, supported and implemented.

Informal Negotiator Dialogues: Over the last several years Meridian Institute alone, and in partnership with the BioCarbon Fund have convened and facilitated informal discussions for those involved with agriculture and climate change in the UNFCCC process and other international forums. These have been undertaken on an ad hoc basis and at the request of countries.

Donor Dialogues: On occasion Meridian has convened and facilitated informal information sharing discussions amongst philanthropies and other donors interested in agriculture and climate change including the link between agriculture and forests. These have typically explored the funding activities of donors, identified gaps, and explored opportunities for collaboration where appropriate.

2013 Donor Mapping Report: Meridian Institute conducted interviews with seventeen multilateral, bilateral, and philanthropic donors who are active in the climate change and agriculture arena. The resulting report summarizes each donor’s activities; their approach to funding climate change and agriculture; and identifies important substantive and funding trends including critical gaps.